Peevey Talks With KOGT About Chapel Hill
The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears defeated the El Campo Ricebirds 24-21 to advance to the Region Three Final. The Bears’ starting quarterback Ashton Landry injured his ankle in the game.
Coach Eric Peevey gave the prospects for Landry to be able to play this week as day to day. Landry is able to move his ankle around, he is walking on it, he is not using crutches, but it is still day to day whether he can play on Friday.
Besides Landry the Bears have no other injuries through two weeks of preseason, two weeks of scrimmages, an eleven week regular season and now three weeks of playoffs. “We’ve been practicing for eighteen weeks, we’re going to have some bumps and bruises about this time of year, but we’re going to take care of those, get a good lift in today, get a good practice in, and our kids will be good to go,” Peevey summed up the injuries for LC-M.
The Bears will play the Chapel Hill Bulldogs who were the fourth seed in their district. Peevey explained the Bulldogs are riding the excellent performance of their freshman quarterback Demetrius Brisbon since about the middle of their district schedule.
Five weeks into the season the Bulldogs benched their starting quarterback and went to Brisbon. After three straight district losses to Lindale, Palestine, and Kilgore, Chapel Hill has won its last five games to reach the regional finals.
Brisbon has gotten on a run during the current streak, and Peevey indicated the freshman is about 6-2 and runs close to a 4.4 in the forty. He has passed for 912 yards, run for 1,029 yards, and has a combined 21 touchdowns.
Running the Spread Offense, the Bulldogs lineup with three or four wide receivers on every snap. They have multiple threats at wide receiver. The most dangerous was identified by Peevey as Tyson Berry who is used to run jet sweeps and can take a short pass in the flat to the house at any time.
Ilonzo McGregor and Ahstin Watkins are both targets for deep passes from Brisbon. Peevey emphasized, “They’re definitely a vertical stretch team, they like to throw it deep every series.”
Chapel Hill is not one dimensional in their attack according to Coach Peevey. Another freshman Rickey Stewart at running back has rushed for 724 yards with five touchdowns. The two freshmen are playing like seniors and not allowing the pressure of the playoffs weigh them down. The pair are very explosive, they appear to be wrapped up by tacklers and they will pop a long run on opposing defenses.
Vidor faced Chapel Hill in Bi-District and appeared to have a great defensive scheme against the Bulldogs. Brisbon was able to break two long runs in third and long situations that turned the game in Chapel Hill’s favor.
Peevey said the Bulldogs have shown a tendency on long drives to turn the ball over and commit penalties. The goal for the Bears is to eliminate the big plays by the Bulldogs and make them earn, fight, and scratch for every yard on offense. “That’s what we have to do,” Peevey insisted.
Little Cypress-Mauriceville will have to move the ball Peevey pointed out against a solid Chapel Hill defense. The Bulldogs run a 4-2-5 scheme which the Bears have not seen much of this year.
The front line is very active. Ladainian Mosley is probably the Bulldogs’ best player on defense and anchors the defensive line. The middle linebacker Brack Dyer is another leader on defense for Chapel Hill.
The Bulldog secondary is the strength of their defensive team. They make sure the big play is eliminated by opponents and they do a good job reading their keys. Peevey added, “I definitely think there’s some points that we can attack and get after just like we do every week, and we’re going to do that. We’re definitely going to have multiple options setup to use multiple people on the field to use different groupings and packages and things they haven’t seen.”
All season Little Cypress-Mauriceville has not worried about one individual on an opponent’s team and just trying to stop that star. The Bears instead have concentrated on doing their own jobs and playing with extreme effort. Peevey is driving the point home to the players that when it comes to the playoffs you just have to play harder than your opponent for four quarters.
The tough schedule played by LC-M has helped the Bears reach this point, Peevey believes. There were no absolute blow outs, instead there have been several come back wins and a few tough hold on to slim leads type victories that have toughened the Bears for the post season where every game is a battle.
The Bears have made believers out of many this season. Coach Peevey gave the keys to make believers out of the Chapel Hill Bulldogs. “We’ve just got to play Bear football, and do our job, and play with extreme effort, and I think we’re going to be fine,” Peevey concluded.
The Region Three Final in Class 4-A, Division I, will be played between the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears and the Chapel Hill Bulldogs on Friday. The game is scheduled for 7:30 PM at the Berry Center in Cypress and can be heard on KOGT.com.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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